Monday, December 3, 2007

Heroes Report on "Powerless"

OK, I'm back, my personal laptop issues and too much work issues have both subsided just in time for me to give my two cents on the finale of Heroes' second volume.

And, sadly, as far as I'm concerned this finale was just as poor as the first volume's. And just like the end of season one, we got a few 'wow' moments mixed with disappointment.

Right now I'm just kind of confused. A lot happened, but it all happened so fast and it was so jumbled that I don't quite get why it all happened. And don't go blaming the writers strike, this was supposed to be the finale all along.

And at this point, the SPOILER warning has to go up.

So what happened? Well, Hiro, Parkman and Nathan tried to stop Adam Monroe from dropping the virus. And while we got a nice little skirmish with Peter matching minds with Parkman, all that really happened was Hiro teleporting Monroe out, leaving Peter to catch the virus and destroy it.

Hiro then dealt with Monroe off camera, burying him alive, leaving him available to the writers in the future. Why it had to happen off camera, I don't know.

Nathan then decided for some unknown reason that, after hiding his secrets for months, NOW of all times was when he needed to schedule a newsconference and tell the world about special people. He was, predictably, shot just before he could say the word "fly."

So, let me get this straight. The writers felt the need to essentially bring Nathan back from the dead, just to do be a prop piece in Peter's story, and then they kill him again. That makes a whole lot of sense guys. Almost as much sense as that whole press conference thing of Nathan's.

But wait, TWO people were supposed to die in this episode, right? Well person No. 2, shoveled in there real quickly in between the bigger storylines, was Nikki. And as pleasing as Ali Larter is to the eyes, I'm not too broken up about this death. Clearly, the writers never found anything great to do with her, other than make her keep screwing up. So, good riddance, and I look forward to the ongoing adventures of Micah and St. Joan.

Oh, and Maya died! YAY!

But then she was brought back from death 2 minutes later. BOO!

And in the process, Sylar re-acquired his powers. Anyone surprised? No? Me neither. But I really want to know what the damn point was in taking away his powers for this little bit of time. Again, it was like the writers made a change for the sake of change, and they were just itching to put things back the way they were. And because of it, we had to sit through the crappy Maya storyline for weeks. BOO!

Oh, and by the way, Sylar's first scenes of the season, with "Candice" in the jungle, still makes ZERO cents.

The only good part of this storyline in the finale was that Elle lived through her Sylar confrontation -- and that is one character that is just dying to be fleshed out.

Last but not least, my guy HRG. And, I'll ask it again, writers, WHAT THE HELL? What went on there? Bennet comes back to his bewildered family, only to say he has made some off-camera deal that requires him to stay away from the family. Why does he have to stay away? Why can't he be a company operative without leaving them? Where was the Haitian for all of this? There was no rhyme, reason or explanation afterward.

Oh, and am I the only one who thinks it was HRG that shot Nathan?

After a lackluster start to the year, Heroes really picked up steam. If only they didn't try to squish so much into one big finale too soon. This volume really could have been a few episodes longer.

With the long wait until Volume 3 (possibly REALLY long with the strike), I don't find myself that sad to see the show go. And that's sad.